


No Matter What

by BurningBehindMyEyes



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika | Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Damian Wayne is Madoka, Depressing Circumstances, Gen, Insanity, Obsession, Tim Drake is Homura, Time Travel, lots of death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-27
Updated: 2017-01-07
Packaged: 2018-09-12 17:27:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9082333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BurningBehindMyEyes/pseuds/BurningBehindMyEyes
Summary: The Magica - beings that made a contract with the Court of Owls, and were given the duty to fight witches in exchange for one singular wish.Tim Drake is a Magica-In-Training, not having made his wish yet. He followed Bruce, Dick, Jason, and Damian in order to decide if he truly wanted this or not. Everything was fine, despite the big bad witch, the Joker, coming to Gotham.Until it wasn't.Until Dick gave in to despair. Until Jason killed himself and Dick. Until the witch arrived.And Bruce and Damian weren't enough.As Tim held Damian's dead body, he made a promise.He would never see anyone he loved die again.No. Matter. What.





	1. Chapter 1

No matter what.

No. Matter. What.

Tim was not going to see another person he cared for die. Not again. He lifted his gaze away from the broken and still body lying prone in his arms to the witch hovering in the sky, cackling with madness. Bruce had died some time ago, after his soul gem had been pierced by one of the tendrils lashing out of the STUPID witch known only as Joker. He had fallen far from his son, as the boy had screamed with unbridled pain and rage. Dick and Jason had died together, long before the witch arrived.

Tim was not about to pretend that he and Damian were close. But he had recognized the kindness in Damian, the empathy for animals, and the love Damian held for the world. It wasn't fair, what happened to him. Not at all. Damian had given it his all. He had fought against Joker, with almost no hope of winning. And he hadn't won, he hadn't won at all. Cracks spread across Damian's beautiful green soul gem, a colour getting darker and more tainted every second that passed.

Tears dripped down Tim's cheeks, splashing along the gem that Damian bore right between his two prominent collar bones. The boy's once proud battle armour was breaking apart, battered with blood splashing the silver. His Magica outfit had always been odd to Tim - it fit him like a glove, no extra padding anywhere. It was dark green along the outside, with light to neon green patterns on the inside, detailing beautiful crests. The Demon crest on his right shoulder, Wayne family crest on his left. Along his stomach, up his back, and along his legs was a pattern of silver scales resembling a dragon. The dragon's face curled around the juncture between shoulder and collarbone, while Damian's soul gem served as it's eye. When the boy transformed, his hair grew randomly, coming to just beneath his shoulder blades. A green ribbon, without fail, always wrapped itself around his hair, braiding it and tying it in a long bow at the end. Dark green gloves with holes cut for the fingers adorned his hands, while on his feet he had dark green combat boots with orange and red patterns, that almost looked like fire.

Damian's transformation as a Magica had always bothered all of them. Tim, who had not decided if he was yet to become a Magica or not, saw nothing wrong with it. One of the largest abnormalities with Damian was that a small Robin always appeared and flew with the boy, seeming to give him the ability to fly. No one knew what Damian had wished for. The boy had merely left his mother, sought out the Court of Owls, and they had granted his wish. He had come to them as a full-fledged Magica, despite not being fully trained.  
Damian was a good person. Tim knew that.

He didn't deserve to die like this.

A Talon stood over them, watching and waiting silently. Tim looked up, fury brimming in his ice cold blue eyes.

"I'll make a contract with you."

Damian was cold. His body was heavy.

"If I can only have one more chance... to meet him again. To start over. And this time, I'll protect him instead of him protecting me!"

Damian wasn't breathing.

The Talon nodded, slowly, and raised his left hand. Tim placed Damian down gently, facing the otherworldly being before screaming as his soul was pulled from his body and transformed into a solid form. He felt the jewel click into place right behind his left ear, and a heavy weight incasing his left arm. He felt the machine move, click, and then blackness invaded his vision.  
\---  
Tim woke up. Shuddering breaths as he sat up, his head moving from side to side in a fervour that almost seemed like it would snap his neck from from his shoulders. He was still in his bedroom, in the Drake manor across from the Wayne mansion. His eyes strayed to his calendar, where the date was circled.  
Today he was supposed to go meet Mr. Wayne, and his sons; Richard, Jason, and... Damian.

Tim's eyes widened and he struggled to get out of bed. Perhaps it was as all a bad dream? Something he made up in his mind, but then he glanced down at his left hand where a silver ring with runes not in any language on Earth were etched, and a nearly white blue streak across the nail of his middle finger.  
None of it was a dream.

He had made a contract with the Court of Owls, forever destined to fight witches until he died. He had gotten his wish. A chance to start over, to meet Damian again and to save him this time. He had gotten his wish, and this was how he paid for it. Tim clenched his fist and set out with determination.  
\--  
It failed.

It all failed.

He watched Damian writhe painfully on the ground, screaming in agony as wickedness was forced out of his gem and into the air above. A witch formed, the soul leaving Damian's body as it transformed into a pitch black dragon, with green flames. It roared, the small Robin Damian had loved curled up on the ground beside him, missing a wing.

Tim tried again.  
\--  
This time, he was forced to shoot Damian. The boy had begged him to, swallowed his pride and pleaded.

Tim couldn't say no.

But he wouldn't give up.  
\--  
He kept Damian from turning into a Magica, but then Damian made a contract anyway, just to save Tim from Joker.

Why was Damian always so stupid?  
\--  
...  
Tim had been painfully reminded. Damian was more than he could have ever hoped to be. Underneath all that arrogance, he held a love Tim had never understood.

He became the one being, allowing his soul and body to be devoured to save every single Magica.

He became the Law of Cycles.

He was gone.  
\---  
Tim had laughed, in free abandon.

He had him, he finally had Damian - and in his arms, the boy lay, a pained grimace on his face as Bruce and Dick cried and tried to stop him.

But they couldn't break through his barrier.

No one could.

He let the Law of Cycles go, but he kept Damian. He kept the boy he had loved for so long close, and safe, all in his arms.

"I'll never let you go, Damian." Tim had whispered. "You're all mine now."

Bruce was pounding on the barrier, screaming bloody murder and pleading with Tim, but Tim refused to listen. Those pathetic humans... Dick had even broken down, was crying. Was horrified.

But those humans could not defeat a being who could pull a God from the heavens.

They didn't have a hope against a demon.  
\--  
Tim was reminded, yet again.

He should really just stop forgetting.

The look in Damian's eyes, as they began to glow an unnatural, neon green, was lost. They stared into the cosmos, they started to break free, and Tim had forgotten again.

He could never have Damian, all because-

He touched Damian's face, gently, a caress, and the boy snapped out of it.  
"I suppose, then one day, you'll be my enemy too." Tim had said, smiling as he caressed Damian's face.

His hand pulled away.

Damian was so much better than he could ever be. And honestly, Tim didn't deserve him.

But he'd fight for him anyway.

He'd build a world where Damian could be free and happy and safe.

No matter what.


	2. The Wish

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A prequel of sorts, to the first chapter.
> 
> All of the wishes made by the Batfam to become Magica. Ends right where the first chapter begins.

Bruce had wished for the power to protect those he loved. The Court of Owls had approached the boy who was sitting in the blood of his parents, after a newly hatched witch appeared. They had stumbled out of the labyrinth and said goodbye before they died. Bruce had dead eyes, then. The Court of Owls had offered him a chance to get revenge.

And then he made his wish.

His soul gem had appeared, glowing as he transformed for the first time. White fabric wrapped around his torso, a white collar appearing, pristine as could be. Heavy black armour, designed to look like fabric, wrapped around the white shirt and down his legs, the top extending in a tailcoat. White gloves adorned his hands, while black dress shoes appeared on his feet. As he reached up with tiny, soft hands, a black top hat appeared on his head, a yellow ribbon wrapping itself around the hat. His soul gem rested upon the ribbon as a black cane appeared in his hands, topped with a bright yellow skull. He stared at it for a mere moment before looking up to the Talon staring down at him.

The Talon extended a hand, and Bruce took it.

Months later, he was transported to a new facility where they were training Magica - and one of the most promising Magica of their time.

Talia al Ghul.

\---

Dick had been very young when he watched his parents fall. What seemed like only seconds later, he was crying on his knees in front of their graves. A man had placed his large hand on his shoulder, and Dick had looked up, sniffling mournfully. The man watched him carefully.

"My name is Bruce Wayne." he had said. "And I think I have something that may help you."

The second Dick was made Bruce's ward, he was introduced to the Court of Owls. Almost on the spot, Dick accepted their offer. He had made his wish.

That no one he loved would ever fall again.

And then, Dick had transformed, but with none of the pain, as he truly had no regrets. Escrima sticks formed in his hands, while bright cyan fabric wrapped around his body in a tight, one piece suit. Bright red and yellow finger stripes formed along his ring and middle fingers, which ran through all the way to his shoulders and down his sides. He had embraced his new life in a way Bruce had never, and had seemed to love being a Magica.

It was during a patrol when they came across a new familiar that Bruce fell. Dick had cried out, reached out a hand, and-

Bruce stopped falling. With a confused glance passed between the two of them, Bruce was launched upwards with a girly shriek (that he will deny to this day) and back to his original falling point.

"My wish! My wish worked!" Dick had bounced up and down, as excited as Bruce had ever seen him. Tears began falling from Dick's eyes. "It worked. No one's ever gonna fall again. Ever."

Dick's orange soul gem glowed from his left cheek as tears ran over it, blurring the colour.

\---

Jason was different from both of them. So much so that it was sort of nuts. He had wished to survive, and that was all.

Bruce had begun creating technology to track witches. And to be honest, it was very screwy. When Jason had happened upon the two Magica fighting a witch after his mom led him into a labyrinth due to her having been taken over by a Witch's Kiss, they had offered the same dealio to Jason. But years on the street had taught Jason that nothing was that simple. So, he told them that he'd tag along, see what this gig was all about, and then decide. So he did.

And he decided that witches were not a big deal. So when a blip appeared on Bruce's computer screen signalling a new witch, Jason had shrugged, grabbed the keys to Bruce's motorcycle, and taken off towards the location. Jason went into that labyrinth thinking that he could handle this.

He was wrong. So, so wrong.

Merely fifteen minutes later, Jason was dying. The Talon approached him, and offered him one single choice.

"I wanna live, you crazy bastard." Jason ground out. "I want to live!"

His transformation was painful. He had screamed, a lot. Chains formed around his neck, ankles, and wrists. They tied him down, stray pieces flinging around his body wildly. The rest of his clothing was merely black, the chains a bloody red. He lifted his face, a blood red imprint appearing around his eyes in the shape of a bat. In between the bat's ears, his soul gem appeared.

A dangerous blood red.

\---

"Soooo. Damian." Tim was lounging around, bored out of his mind now that the witches had been pretty inactive due to the Joker's recent activity, but not close enough that they'd do anything about it. The young boy raised an eyebrow at him, arrogance dripping off every pore. The little robin was perched on his head, head buried under his wings as he preened.

"What, Drake? I'm busy." Damian snapped, uncrossing his legs and placing his arms down.

"Busy with what? You were just sitting there with your eyes closed."

"I was meditating, moron!"

"That was not meditating, that was napping! I know the difference!" Tim shot back. Damian growled, before turning his head slowly away from Tim so as not to disturb his bird. Tim sighed heavily.

"Look, I just- sorry. I was just wondering what kind of wish you made." Tim had asked. Damian had looked at him out of the corner of his eye before getting up, gently. 

"That's none of your business, Drake." the boy had said dismissively before walking away. Tim sighed again. Why was Damian so difficult?

\---

"Drake?" Damian spoke softly, his voice was a hoarse rasp. Tim held him in his arms, as tears dripped down his face and onto Damian's soul gem.

Damian's soul gem that was horribly damaged.

"Save your strength." Tim gasped out. "Please, please don't die. Don't die like they did, please Damian please..." Tim begged.

"I can't promise that." Damian coughed, blood spilling out from between his lips. "B-but... you asked me a-a... question. A couple days ago. What... what I wished for."

Tim's eyes begged with Damian. Just to survive. But even through all the faked positivity, the reality of this situation was setting in. Damian was going to die.

"What I wished for..." Damian's eyes welled up, closing as his final tears slipped down his face. "When I was still with my mother..."

"Damian please-"

"I wanted to be free." Damian cried out, and Tim shut up, eyes widened in realization. Damian's ability to fly. His robin, a bird. A being able to fly free, fly away wherever it wanted. "I wished... I wished to be FREE!" Damian screamed one, last time.

And then he was gone.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! ;)


End file.
